One Moment in Time

"One Moment in Time"
Cover art for North American and UK editions
Single by Whitney Houston
from the album 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time
B-side	"Love Is a Contact Sport"
Released	August 27, 1988
Format	CD single, Cassette single, 7" single
Recorded	July 1988
Genre	R&B, soul, gospel
Length	4:44
Label	Arista
Songwriter(s)	Albert Hammond, John Bettis
Producer(s)	Narada Michael Walden
Whitney Houston singles chronology
"I Know Him So Well" (1988) "One Moment in Time" (1988) "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" (1989)
"I Know Him So Well" (1988) "One Moment in Time" (1988) "It Isn't, It Wasn't, It Ain't Never Gonna Be" (1989)
Music video
"One Moment in Time" on YouTube

"One Moment in Time" is a worldwide hit and an Emmy Award winning^[1] song written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis, produced by Narada Michael Walden and recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1988 Summer Paralympics held in Seoul, South Korea. The song was Houston's third number one in the UK Singles Chart, and reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100.

History

The song's melody was inspired by the timeless figure of Elvis Presley, with Hammond imagining it as being sung by Presley at the opening of the Olympics. It appeared on the album 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time, produced in conjunction with NBC Sports' coverage of the Seoul games and which, in addition to Whitney Houston who sang it live at the main ceremony, also featured artists such as: The Four Tops, The Bee Gees, Eric Carmen, Taylor Dayne and the film composer John Williams. The track is an anthem for believing in yourself against all odds as Houston asks for "One moment in time/when I'm racing with destiny/Then, in that one moment of time, I will feel eternity."

The video for the song does not show Houston performing the song but is a basic collage of clips from previous Olympic ceremonies. It opens with footage of Olympic games from 1924 and 1964 until the lighting of the cauldron from the 1988 games is shown which fades from black and white to color. As the song plays throughout, footage from the games in 1988 and 1984 are shown. When the chorus is sung for the last time, midway through it, scenes of the awarding from 1984 and 1988 are shown. The song video ends with the 1988 Olympic Cauldron blazing.

Chart performance

"One Moment in Time" was released by Arista Records in August 1988 as the first single from The 1988 Summer Olympics Album: One Moment in Time, the soundtrack to the Games in Seoul, South Korea.^[2] The song debuted at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, the issue dated September 10, 1988.^[3] Nine weeks later, it peaked at number five on the chart, the issue date of November 12, 1988, becoming Houston's tenth top 10 hit on the Hot 100, and spent 17 weeks on the chart.^[4] It also debuted on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (formerly "Hot Black Singles") at number 78, the issue dated September 17, 1988, and six weeks later reached a peak of 22, her lowest position on the R&B chart at the time.^[5] On the issue date of November 5, 1988, the single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart, making it her seventh number-one single on the chart, and stayed on the top for two weeks.^[6][7] It ranked number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart of 1988.^[8]

Worldwide, it was a big hit. In the United Kingdom, the song entered the UK Singles Chart at number 24, the week ending date of September 24, 1988, and within four weeks of its release reached the top position, a peak it maintained for two weeks, becoming Houston's third UK number-one single.^[9][10] The single was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments of 200,000 copies on October 1, 1988.^[11] According to The Official Charts Company, the single has sold 400,000 copies in the country.^[12] In Germany, it debuted at number 58 on the Media Control Top 100 Singles chart, the week dated September 26, 1988, and the following week went straight into the top ten.^[13] On October 24, 1988, the fifth week of its release, the song reached number one on the chart and stayed there for two weeks, making it her second German number-one hit.^[14] The single was certified Gold for shipments of 250,000 copies or more by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) in 1988.^[15] Across Europe, "One Moment in Time" was successful, topping the European Hot 100 Singles chart for five weeks. It peaked inside the top five in Austria,^[16] Belgium,^[17] Italy,^[18] Norway,^[19] Sweden,^[20] and Switzerland,^[21] and reached top ten in France^[22] and the Netherlands.^[23] But the single became a minor hit in Oceania region, peaking at number 53 and 34 on the singles chart, in Australia and New Zealand, respectively.^[24][25] The song re-entered the UK Singles Chart for week ending February 18, 2012 following Houston's death.^[26]

Also following Houston's death, Entertainment Weekly published a list of her 25 best songs and ranked it #14 because: "The Seoul Olympics needed an anthem, and Houston rose to meet the challenge with this majestic carpe diem chest-thumper. The song, a staple of sports montages, yielded one of Houston's all-time best performances at the 1989 Grammys ceremony."^[27]

Live performances

• 1989: Houston performed the song at the opening of the 31st Grammy Awards on February 22, 1989, where she was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female.^[28] This performance was broadcast live on CBS and released on the videos and CD: Grammy's Greatest Moments, Vol II (1994),^[29][30] and Whitney: The Greatest Hits (2000).^[31] It also appears on the CD/DVD Live: Her Greatest Performances.
• 1990: She also performed the song during Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th Anniversary Celebration in Show Business, taped at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on November 13, 1989 and broadcast on ABC, February 4, 1990.^[32][33]
• 1997: Houston performed the song again at the US Open Tennis Championships: the Arthur Ashe Stadium Inauguration Ceremonies on August 25, 1997. While the past US Open tennis champions appeared on screen, she dedicated the song to the legendary tennis players and about 23,000 audience.^[34]

Other versions

A British pop group, the Shadows did an instrumental version on their 1989 album, Steppin' to the Shadows: 16 Great Tracks As Only the Shadows Can Play Them.^[35]

In popular culture

The song was played during a montage of highlights at the end of NBC Sports' coverage of the 1988 World Series after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Oakland Athletics four games to one. The song was also played during the 1995 Baltimore Orioles game when Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive played games record.

Appropriately for the song's origins as an Olympic anthem, Olympic gold medal-winning heptathlete Denise Lewis selected the song as one of her eight Desert Island Discs in February 2012. That same month, the song featured at the beginning of the 2012 Brit Awards at London's O2 Arena in tribute to Houston who had died earlier in the month by playing the song accompanied with a 30-second-video montage of her music videos.^[36]

Personnel

• Whitney Houston: vocals, vocal arranger
• Narada Michael Walden: producer, arranger, drums
• Walter Afanasieff: keyboards
• Randy Jackson: Moog Source synth bass
• Robert "Bongo Bob" Smith: SP-12 percussion, drum sampling, programming
• Ren Klyce: Fairlight synthesizer
• Vernon "Ice" Black: guitar
• The London Symphony Orchestra: orchestra
• Claytoven Richardson, Jeanie Tracy, Jim Gilstrap, Karen "Kitty Beethoven" Brewington, Lynette Stephens, Rosie Gaines, Walter Hawkins: background vocals

Track listing and formats

Charts and certifications